


You, Me, and the Open Road

by Loser_Angel_666



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:14:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27715945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loser_Angel_666/pseuds/Loser_Angel_666
Summary: Chuck is no longer god, Cas didn't die, and the confession in 15x18 never happened***“Wait, did Angela think we’re together?”“Probably,” Cas shrugs. “She did compare us to her and her missing girlfriend.”
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 4
Kudos: 103





	You, Me, and the Open Road

**Author's Note:**

> I'm pissed that Dean said me too but the c* cut it out 
> 
> I'll probably write a different fic to release that anger, though. I wrote this last night and I wanted it to be happy and cute

Cas follows Dean into the shop, looking around curiously at the souvenirs. Dean spots a little key chain with angel wings and holds them up to Cas chuckling.

“Aren’t we here to look for demonic activity?”

“Yeah, but we can still have some fun. Life isn’t all demons and angels man.”

“Clearly,” Cas says, eyeing the cashier suspiciously from across the room. “I’m not sensing anything, Dean.”

“Me, neither. Oh, hey, that’s the victim.” Dean points towards a young women with red hair.

“Should we go talk to her?”

“Am and I already did, but who's to say that demon bastard isn’t coming back for her?” Dean shrugs, Cas rolls his eyes, but follows Dean over to the women, Angela, anyway. She smiles and waves when she sees them coming.

“Agent Furman, how are you?”

“I’m well, you?”

“I’m alright. Nothing new, sorry.”

“Ah, no, that’s alright. My partner and I just wanted to check in and make sure you’re handling things okay. I know you’re probably under plenty of stress.”

“Thank you. I’m as good as one can expect to be after losing their partner. She was everything. I think she was the one, you know? It’s just… I can’t… believe it still.”

“I understand. But don't lose hope, we're still looking, she might not be dead. You will be okay,” Cas assures her.

“Exactly.” Dean nods, patting Cas’ shoulder. "I've nearly lost Cas far too many times, but he's still here. We're good at our job, alright?" She nods, sniffs and regains her composure, looking between them.

“I thought you had a different partner. Agent… Montgomery.”

“Oh, uh, yeah, he’s following a different lead. Cas is a different partner.” Dean nods. 

Cas looks at him curiously, he doesn’t have his badge on him, seeing as they weren’t planning on playing FBI and Cas wasn’t in their story. Angela looks between them for a moment, before opening her mouth in an ‘oh’ and nodding.

“Oh! Ok, I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize. Are you off duty?”

“A little, Agent Montgomery is still working,”

“I’ll let you get back to it, then, thank you so much with your help in this.” She smiles gratefully, “By the way, there’s a cute little restaurant a few blocks from here, big green sign out front, impossible to miss. It’s casual and the food is amazing,”

“Oh, Thank you for the recommendation,” Cas smiles.

“Of course. Me and Liz would eat there all the time,” She says then she walks off. Cas turns to Dean expectantly.

“Alright, so she wasn’t a demon.”

“No.” Cas shakes his head. Then he reaches around Dean onto one of the shelves and takes an uncrustable pb&j. Dean raises his eyebrow but doesn’t say anything, and when they reach the counter, Cas asks for a slice of pie as well and Dean nearly splits his face in half with his grin.

They eat in the car in comfortable silence. Making sure to keep an eye out for anything specific as well. Dean is content to sit with his thoughts and next to Castiel, until he realizes;

“Wait, did Angela think we’re together?”

“Probably,” Cas shrugs. “She did compare us to her and her missing girlfriend.”

“She gave us a date recommendation.”

“Yes. We passed that place on our way here, it looks good.”

“Hm.” Dean takes another bite of pie.

“Does it bother you?” Cas asks, and last year, the answer would have been yes. But now, looking at Cas. Looking at himself… 

“Not really. I guess we do act kind of coupley.”

“You did call me your partner.”

“You are my partner.” Dean rolls his eyes. He tosses the empty pie container and plastic fork onto the backseat to take care of later. “Work partner, best friend, partner in crime.”

“Partner in crime?”

“Theft, impersonating authorities, breaking and entering, technically murder. You name it, we done it” Dean shrugs.

“All for the greater good, though.” Cas reminds him and Dean nods. “I guess we are partners… just not the way she thought you meant.”

“I guess not.” Dean hums, he starts the Car and prepares to back out of their parking spot before turning back to Cas. “Sorry bout that,”

“I don’t mind Dean, I am happy to be your partner.”

Dean’s face heats up, he just nods and offers Cas a small smile.

“And I’m happy to be yours.”

Cas looks content there, in the passenger seat, and Dean wonders why he doesn’t sit there all the time. It’s not like Sam doesn’t fit in the back. He’s tall, but he can bend his legs. Dean likes having Cas ride shotgun. He likes being able to watch him from his peripheral vision, the sun on his face, the quiet peacefulness that comes with simply being beside each other. 

They’ve had a rough go, the Winchesters. All of them, Jack and Cas and Eileen too. They’ve been hopeless and broken beyond repair. They’ve been dying, or dead, or so alive it felt like they were dying or dead. They’ve been at their worst, then they sunk even lower. They’ve been tired. Constantly fighting, awaiting the next big thing. Looking for ways to save the world, stop god, kill Lucifer, all while taking out the little things in between.

A simple Vamp nest feels mundane now, after having an archangel inhabit his body. And now that God is neutralized, it feels odd for their most complicated hunts to be demons. He’s almost forgotten that there was ever a time when demons seemed like a challenge. A time when they questioned the existence of angels. To be fair, they weren’t very nice angels. Dean thinks the most angelic part of Cas is how human he is. The simple mundanity of learning how to live a human life again is ethereal. Cas will always be divine in Dean’s eyes.

They’ve been through hell and back more than once. Literally and figuratively, and when Dean looks to his side, he sees Cas, who’s been there through every second of it. 

Him and Cas have had a long relationship. Long and complicated and intense. Dean has seen Cas bloody and bruised and hopeless. Cas has seen Dean with his insides torn out and his soul turned rotten. They’ve saved each other time and time again. Sacrificed for each other. Rebelled for each other. And Dean has never given Cas the credit. He’s been an ass more times than he’d like to admit. Even if he was there when it counted, it felt like he wasn’t. That regret aches down to his bones. 

He looks at Cas, who is content and free for once in their goddamn lives, with the sun setting on his face and the open window blowing wind through his hair. And Dean thinks that he knows what this feeling is. For all the times he couldn’t force himself to think about it, nevermind say it out loud, the word comes so easily into his head. 

He could wait. He could keep waiting until the perfect moment. For them to be so far in that there’s no way anything could ever change. He could wait until they’re on a hunt, till one of them is dying. He could keep waiting. But Dean already nearly lost Cas far too many times. Even if he can’t tell Cas how he feels, he needs cas to know he isn’t alone. With a deep breath, he pushes out all of the self hate and fear that tries to boil up again. And he turns down the music.

“What is it Dean?” Cas asks gently.

“You know that you belong here, right? With us.”

“Yes?”

“I just feel like I never told you enough. The times I didn’t tell you to stay, or when I… kicked you out. Every time I didn’t tell you how much you mean to us, I’m sorry, man.”

“It’s alright, Dean. We all had a lot on our plates.”

“I was an ass.” Dean shakes his head. “I made you feel useless and unwanted and- and I didn’t appreciate you enough. I’m sorry.”

“You’ve changed. I’ve forgiven you.” Cas shrugs. “I’ve done plenty of horrible things of my own.”

“You shouldn’t forgive me, but thank you. I’ve forgiven you too.”

Cas nods and the silence that falls between them is comfortable, waiting. The music softly plays a Taylor Swift song, something about love that Dean will pretend he doesn’t know the words to. It takes a few more minutes for him to speak again. But he doesn’t turn the music back up, so Cas was expecting it.. 

“That restaurant Angela was talking about did look good didn’t it?” Dean suggests quietly.

“Yes. Would you like to check it out?”

“Is this a date?” Dean asks, and then he cringes, because that’s not how he’s supposed to do it. ‘Dumbass’ his brain whispers to him.

“I’m not sure how to date.” Cas admits and Dean only shrugs, playing it cool.

“Yeah, I’m not great at it either.”

“Maybe we should skip the dating and jump into just being partners.” Cas says, head tilted. Dean splutters, choking on his water, but he quickly recovers.

“Really?”

“If you would like. I’m sure you know how I feel toward you. I wasn’t sure you were ready. Or if you even felt the same.”

“I didn’t know, actually.” Dean says, still completely caught off guard by the conversation. Just because he was thinking about confessing doesn’t mean he actually thought it would happen.

“Dean, you are the only person I know who loves as passionately as you do. Even in fits of destruction, there is love in your heart.” Cas says, speaking out to the horizon, he looks at peace. “You changed me. You saved me, in ways even I can’t comprehend. You still save me, every single day. You taught me...how to care. And… I- I care about you, I care about Sam, and Jack, and- and Charlie and Claire, Jody…” He trails off.

Dean looks at him then, and finds Cas looking back. Dean pulls the car off to the side of the road, Cas waits patiently until they’re fully parked to turn toward Dean.

“I cared about the whole world, because of you.” He whispers. “And I never expected anything from you. I never required reciprocation. What we’re doing now, whatever you want to call it… that’s more than enough for me.” 

“But…?” Dean whispers.

“There is no but.” Cas says, staring straight at Dean. “I love you”

Dean is silent for a long while, looking a little misty eyed, and Cas is starting to get nervous. But then he turns in his seat, one elbow on top of the steering wheel.

“I’m not sure how the hell I’m supposed to follow that, Cas. I don’t deserve a word of it. But you deserve everything. So I’m gonna try, okay?” Dean says. Cas nods, and Dean takes a breath. “Before we met I didn’t believe in anything. Not myself, not angels, not the greater good. Nothing. And then, you showed up and put everything I thought I knew completely upside down. You changed me too, man. Alright?

“And I’ve never been good at feelings. I’ve been… repressing shit since I was four years old. Never been honest with myself a day in my life. Until we defeated Chuck at least, but it was always there. For years, and I uh, I see it now.” Dean glances away and licks his lips, taking a moment to breath.

Cas wants to reach out, but he’s afraid to break Dean’s train of thought. Dean looks down at his lap and smiles softly as he continues.

“You know, there’s uh, there are… feelings. And stuff. There are things I want to be able to appreciate. I never got to really think about it, always being on the run, or preparing for battle. But now….”

Dean sighs and Cas waits patiently. Dean looks back at the road.

“Now it’s just you, me, and the open road.” Dean smiles. “And I have the time to- to think about this shit.”

“That’s good, Dean.”

“It is. It’s really good. And it’s scary as hell, because as much as I want to, I don’t know if I know how to. But it’s… it’s here, and I know what it is. And I’m ready, I think. To just… to experience life. And relationships. Love.” Dean looks at Cas, who grins back at him. “I want to experience that, Cas.”

“You will.” He assures.

“I want to experience it with you.”

“With me… how?”

“However you want. You’re- you’re the one I want to spend the rest of this shitty life with. You make… all this pain and loss and misery so much better Cas. You always have. And now we have a chance at happiness? I’d be stupid not to take it. I don’t think it would really be my happy ending unless it’s with you.” He says, looking down. Then he looks right back up at Cas. “I love you, Castiel.” 

The ex-angel’s full name sounds weird on his lips, but the relief he gets from saying washes over him. Cas breaks out into a soft smile, and reaches across to take Dean’s hand.

“I love you too Dean.” He says. “We'll figure it out together.” And in a moment of sudden bravery, Dean reaches over and pulls Cas in for a kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> In this world, jack visits regularly, so do the wayward sisters
> 
> Eileen and Sam are happily in love, Sam will become the new bobby and eventually Dean and Cas will half retire and only take up cases here and there  
> it doesn't fit their character arc for them to all die, coming back to life is there whole brand


End file.
